Happy to be Home
by SparkaDark
Summary: Tony's college-age daughter is home "alone." My first submission.


Emilia Stark paid her driver through the rolled-down window of the taxi, turned, and took a minute to bask in the warm Malibu sun as the cab wound its way back towards the PCH. Considering the hours she'd been putting in at the lab, a bit of sunlight on her face felt like heaven. For a Cali girl, she was pale as death. It had been a long semester at MIT and she was happy to be home. Pulling the large army-issue duffel up onto her back for the last time that day, she walked through the door of the palatial Malibu residence rebuilt by her parents back in 2013.

"Welcome home, Miss Emilia" Jarvis's warm English greeting surrounded her in the foyer of the grand compound. Emilia sighed, rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Thank you, Jarvis. Good to be back." The relationship between Emilia and JARVIS had always been a strange one. When Emilia had come to live with her father at the age of 11, she and Jarvis hadn't gotten off to a good start. Being the two most independently intelligent of his creations, they found themselves in direct competition with each other for Tony Stark's attention. By the time Emilia had come on the scene, her father had been listening to Jarvis for a long time. He had an unfair head start, in her opinion, and so the "relationship" (if you could call it that - Jarvis wasn't even human) had always had rough edges.

"Parental Units on the premises yet, Jarvis?" Emilia queried, sighing with satisfaction as the large duffel rolled off of her shoulder and onto the floor. As she dragged her bag up the winding stairs and into her bedroom, Jarvis's voice followed her.

"No, Miss. As requested, your homecoming has not been reported to your… Parental Units, as it were. They are unaware of your arrival."

"Thanks, Jarvis. You're the man."

"As you wish, Miss. The agenda for today has your parents' return slated for around 9 o'clock. Might I suggest take-out, as Mr. and Mrs. Stark will be dining with clients this evening?"

"Knock yourself out, Jarvis. Whatever you're having."

"Chinese it is."

Emilia giggled. _Okay,_ she thought, _Gotta give him that one_. Emilia began unpacking and relished the fact that her mom had acquiesced to her wishes and left her room unchanged since her return to university in January. Pepper Potts-Stark was forever tweaking the rooms of the compound, making the place hers. Emilia couldn't blame her; Pepper was able to have full input into Stark Compound, MK 2, and she liked it to reflect modern interior design. She had amazing taste, but Em liked her room to have a more lived-in feel; she wasn't a fan of too much change.

Efficiently offloading her clothes and sundries, Em tossed her duffel into a corner of the large closet and changed into soft, worn jeans, a faded tee she'd stolen from her dad's closet, and a pair of slim, rugged, work gloves of her own invention. Lastly she added a pair of classic red low-rise Converse All-Stars, oil-stained and scuffed, but her favorites. She pulled her long brown hair into a ponytail and nimbly skipped down to the garage.

Jarvis lighting the way, Em arrived at the reason for her low-profile return: A 1951 Jaguar XK 150 coupe. She and her dad had brought in the rusted, dented wreck shortly after Em's 13th birthday. For the last five years, they had worked to restore the Jag to working condition, scouring the internet and vast junkyards for period hardware. Em had missed it desperately. She popped the bonnet open and carefully placed a drape. The paint job had been her last completed project and the deep green finish still gave her a thrill of satisfaction. Working on the Jag was her way of disconnecting from the world. The projects she had in various stages of completion back in Massachusetts had a way of piling up and overlapping. Every once in a while, Em needed to decompress and work a problem that had a clear, straightforward solution. Classic internal combustion engines provided just that: Find the glitch, work the equation, solve the problem. It was incredibly satisfying and allowed other issues to process in the background. Fairly frequently Em found epiphany underneath that car. She kept a pencil and paper there with her, for just such occasions.

Emilia felt the need to "sneak" back home early to give herself this time with her pet project because her homecoming after the fall semester away had limited her time with the Jag. Mom felt the need to entertain her, keep her occupied, or take her shopping, even though Em encouraged her to act as if nothing special had happened. Dad had five or six new gadgets he wanted to show her in his workshop… After that, something came up that completely absorbed him in his own work and garage space was at a premium. This time around, she was arranging a little "me" time, and so the clandestine return was planned. In his strange inhuman way, Jarvis had seemed to understand. She appreciated it. She was meaning to mention just that when he interrupted her thoughts: "Miss Emilia?"

"Hmm? 'Sup J?" She had found a creeper and settled in under the Jag. Last time she was in town, she'd discovered some rust near the exhaust she wanted to investigate. She grabbed a work light and hung it from the undercarriage.

"I'm afraid there's been a change in plans."

"Not in the mood for Chinese?" She bantered, smiling. "How does pizza grab you?"

"I'm sorry, but you have company, Miss."

She was just able to utter, "Huh?" When she felt something catch hold of her leg and roll her out from under the car. She scrambled and was just able to grab her notepad and pencil before the source of her interruption showed itself… Himself.

The big, serious face was one she'd tangled with numerous times before.

"Happy?"

"Em? Em!"

Happy was not happy.

"What's wrong? Wait… You didn't tell Mom I'm here yet, did you?"

"You're lucky I didn't have you arrested." He turned and addressed the half-dozen members of his security detail. "Stand down. Ladybug has landed ahead of schedule."

_Ladybug_... She hated that stupid code name. It was cute when she was 11. By 12 just the sight of the little red and black buggers set her teeth on edge.

"Happy. For the millionth time, just have security call me Em. I'm pretty sure they save that secret service crap for… you know… the president. Now, can we please remove Seal Team Six there from my garage? I'm trying to work."

In the background, she heard the crackle of transmitters, repeating, "Copy. Ladybug has landed."

_Frick. Here it comes. All that's left is to see who hears it first. _

"LADYBUG?"

_Oh, Hell... Mom_.

Emilia, still laying on the creeper, covered her face with both hands and attempted to erase the tension…

"Almost made it, didn't I, Jarvis?"

"Valiant attempt, Miss."


End file.
